Demi Moore’s stirring Golden Globes speech exposes ugly Hollywood secret

Demi Moore’s heartfelt Golden Globes speech was decades in the making - and exposed an ugly side of Hollywood she knows all too well.

Demi Moore’s triumphant Golden Globes speech revealed an ugly side of Hollywood — and sources say it’s all true.

As she stepped on the stage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel yesterday, Moore, 62, reminded everyone that it was her first ever award in a career spanning more than four decades.

“Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a popcorn actress,” she declared while accepting the Globe for Best Female Actor in a musical or comedy, for The Substance.

“At that time, I made that mean that this wasn’t something that I was allowed to have. That I could do movies that were successful and made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged and I bought in, and I believed that,” she said.

In the 1980s and ’90s, Moore was one of America’s biggest stars — in blockbusters including Ghost, Indecent Proposal, A Few Good Men, G.I. Jane and Striptease.

The award marks a remarkable career comeback for Moore. Picture: Getty

Moore’s speech was a highlight of the night. Picture: Getty

But after Moore took what she expected would be a temporary step back from Hollywood, to raise her three daughters with Bruce Willis in Idaho, the actress had been replaced by younger models and wasn’t readily welcomed back.

“Demi didn’t get offered roles for many years — you just have to look at her IMDB page to see that,” a longtime friend of Moore’s told Page Six.

In recent years, the leading lady has been reduced to bit parts in shows like Peacock’s one-season sci-fi series Brave New World and the Nic Cage movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

“And even her role on [Taylor Sheridan’s new show] Landman is a small role,” said the friend. “She struggled.”

Moore’s role in 1990’s Ghost set her up as one of the most bankable movie stars of the decade.

Critics have griped that Moore is wasted in the role of Cami Miller, the elegant wife of billionaire oilman Monty Miller, played by Jon Hamm.

And while Moore had a meaty role as socialite Ann Woodward in Ryan Murphy’s show Feud last year, she was hardly the lead.

At this year’s Globes, host Nikki Glaser called out the bitter truth in Hollywood as she spoke about Moore and fellow nominee Pamela Anderson, 57: “If you’re a woman over 50 in a lead role, they call it a comeback. If you’re a guy over 50 in a lead role, congratulations, you’re about to play Sydney Sweeney’s boyfriend.”

“What Nikki said is absolutely true,” said Moore’s friend. “It’s a completely different world for men and women in Hollywood.”

Moore started her career as a member of the so-called Brat Pack, alongside stars like Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy, in ’80s hits St. Elmo’s Fire and About Last Night. She went on to become the highest-paid actress in the world when, in 1995, she was paid $US12.5 million (around $US25.8 million today) for Striptease.

Striptease briefly made her the world’s highest-paid actress.

But her roles weren’t seen as Oscar bait.

“Demi was undoubtedly passed over for roles that Julia Roberts got and won Oscars for,” a Hollywood insider told Page Six.

Ironically, it was The Substance — a campy horror film about an ageing Hollywood star who embraces a secret cloning procedure to save her career — that won Moore her first Globe.

In her acceptance speech, Moore said that being pigeonholed, and then ignored, “corroded me over time, to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it. Maybe I was complete, maybe I’d done what I was supposed to do.

“And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance,” she added. “And the universe told me, ‘You’re not done.’”

The moment was captured in a video posted to Instagram by her three daughters with Willis, Rumer, 36, Scout, 33, and Tallulah, 30.

“SHE DID IT,” wrote Scout in a comment.

“GO MAMA GO. So so proud of you. Omg I love you so much. So well deserved,” added Rumer.

And they weren’t the only ones. Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, 48, also posted a heartfelt congratulations: “We are screaming over here!!! Congratulations @demimoore,” she gushed on her Instagram Stories.

“They are a true nuclear family,” said the Moore pal. “They are all very close and Emma and Demi truly count each other as friends.”

Not only did Moore and Willis quarantine together with their daughters during pandemic lockdowns, but Moore told CBS Sunday Morning recently that she tries to spend time with Willis weekly since he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023.

“He’s not getting any worse, and he’s not getting any better, but Emma and the entire family have been simply unbelievable,” the friend said.

Moore’s now in with a shot to win her first Oscar for her role in The Substance (pictured).

The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 17 and Moore is now a firm favourite to get a Best Actress nomination.

“Demi and her team are crafting a great Oscar campaign,” one industry awards expert told Page Six. “[Her Globes acceptance] was a magnificent speech that she delivered perfectly. I think she’s in with a shot.”

Moore wrapped up yesterday’s speech by reminding people about one of the messages The Substance tries to impart.

“In those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough or basically just not enough,” she said, “I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.’”

This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission

Originally published as Demi Moore’s stirring Golden Globes speech exposes ugly Hollywood secret